The present invention generally relates to a system and method for monitoring the delivery of electronic documents. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for monitoring the deliveries of electronic documents which are designated for electronic delivery within a document generating system.
At present, almost every business of any size communicates with its customers almost exclusively through forms and documents which are printed and mailed. Typically, in this process documents are prepared using word processors which output the completed documents via a printer. Once out of the printer, the document is then inserted into an envelope and mailed. Overall, the present system for communicating with customers is both slow and very expensive involving high labor and postage costs for each piece of correspondence.
For these reasons, many companies have tried to encourage their customers to use the Internet to keep updated and to receive correspondence. However, the present systems available for companies are extremely limited in their scope and they require a great deal of customer participation to operate effectively. Additionally, many companies are reluctant to trust an electronic delivery system to transmit important documents. In many cases, such distrust is well founded as the present systems available for electronic document delivery are unreliable. In particular, many of the present document delivery systems are unreliable due to addressing errors for electronic mailboxes which are notoriously prone to user error. Additionally, the present systems offer no effective means for tracking or monitoring the documents and document data delivered through an electronic delivery system.
Accordingly, what is needed is a comprehensive electronic delivery system which includes a reliable and effective method and system for monitoring the electronic delivery of documents and document data.
According to the present invention, a system and method are provided for reliably monitoring the delivery of electronic documents.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, one method for electronically delivering documents is provided which includes the steps of: creating log files for storing selected data related to selected electronic document preparation events; forwarding the log files to a central database for storage; and providing access to the log files for retrieval and analysis. Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations, particularly pointed out in the appended claims.